


Play The Game

by candypinksocks



Category: Franklin & Bash
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-01
Updated: 2012-12-01
Packaged: 2017-11-20 00:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/579086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candypinksocks/pseuds/candypinksocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a fight about a case and one beer past what Jared would normally drive on, a corner he's taken a thousand times before but judges it all wrong and of course a '75 Bronco has no air bags, no anti-lock brakes and the last thing Jared remembers is his shoulder being jammed all up the wrong way and thinking that his leg bone shouldn't be sticking out like that and that maybe Peter was right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Play The Game

**Author's Note:**

> For the kink meme prompt - _Hi there. I'm a sucker for the "mistaken for a couple" trope, and I'd love to see a fic where that happens, preferably either when they're moving in together or when they're teenagers and Jared or Peter's family (or both families) think they're involved. But those are just suggestions, I'd be happy with any scenario you can think of._
> 
>  
> 
> _I don't care if they end up together or not. I also don't care if at some point they realize people think they're a couple and decide to pretend they are one anyway just to see people's reactions (I'm just saying cause some people might think going in that direction doesn't fit the prompt, but I'm fine with authors doing that)._
> 
>  
> 
> _Only things I'd like to ask are: don't make it angsty if you're not gonna fix them in the end and I'd prefer if they're not gay/bi in the fic, or at least not openly. I prefer stories where characters slowly realize that they're attracted to each other._
> 
>  
> 
> And thanks as always to Vic

There's a fight about a case and one beer past what Jared would normally drive on, a corner he's taken a thousand times before but judges it all wrong and of course a '75 Bronco has no air bags, no anti-lock brakes and the last thing Jared remembers is his shoulder being jammed all up the wrong way and thinking that his leg bone shouldn't be sticking out like that and that maybe Peter was right.

*

Peter gets the call at nine-forty five pm. He's nursing his third beer, the shot he lined up next to it untouched and he leaves both without so much as a second thought and flags down a cab outside the bar. He makes it to the hospital in twenty-three minutes and watches every one of them go by on the wristwatch Jared got him when he finally passed the bar exam.

The doctor talks at him as he's led to Jared's room; something about a compound fracture and a dislocated shoulder, concussion and unconscious and internal bleeding and Peter just nods, listening but not, sick to his stomach and almost running at the same time. And when he gets to Jared's room and looks through the little glass window, sees the monitors and the drips, the ventilator and Jared's leg, plaster up to his groin and metalwork sticking out of his thigh, his knees finally give out, he loses the beer and the stale nachos he had for dinner all over the doctor's shoes and stays a crumpled heap on the floor for too long.

*

Jared's unconscious for four days, nine hours and thirteen minutes. Peter spends pretty much every second in a stupidly uncomfortable plastic chair as close to the bed as he can get without actually being in it, dozes when he can't keep his eyes open any longer, eats without tasting and ignores the fact that he stinks. He pees with the door open, looking over his shoulder the whole time in case Jared wakes up. 

And he still almost misses it when Jared does.

He's outside the room explaining to Jared's nurse _again_ that he doesn't need to go home, that he wants to be here when Jared wakes up, that Jared will need him to be here when he wakes up and no, they don't need to call anyone else. He's frustrated and angry and so tired he doesn't know how he's even standing there, much less having a conversation, and he turns around then to take a quick look, because he can't be not looking at Jared. It's a pull that he stopped thinking on not long after that first day in the park, just went with it, just like with most everything to do with Jared, just figured that's how it is with friends and it's formed the rest of their friendship since. It's then he sees Jared's hand move. He freezes on the spot, stops breathing, his nose pressed to the glass until he sees Jared's hand move again.

He's through the door and next to the bed before he's even taken his next breath.

Jared's eyes flicker open, close again just as quick and then there's a room full of people and Peter's being pushed to the corner. He can't see, needs to be close and fights his way through too many people to get to Jared. He's in the way, he knows he is, but he doesn't care. Just gets his hand on Jared's and refuses to let go.

*

There's light and too much noise, beeping and pain and something stuck in his throat that he can't swallow past. He can't move and he doesn't know where he is, but he sees Peter, hears his voice and lets that sound follow him down into blackness again.

*

"We're going to remove the ventilator; he can breathe on his own now." Peter just nods, doesn't take his eyes off Jared, doesn't let go of his hand. "There'll be some discomfort; he'll be sore and unable to talk, so don't expect too much."

Peter nods again, grips Jared's hand a little harder and brushes his thumb over the back in a slow circle. "Hey buddy, they're gonna take that thing out, okay?" He's not sure Jared can hear him, but carries on anyway. "Don't be giving them shit, just let it happen."

And for the first time since he walked through the door, Peter can't look, can't trust himself not to pass out again when the doctor goes to pull the tube out of Jared's throat. He feels Jared's hand tighten on his, hears Jared gag and cough and try to say his name and that's almost too much right there.

"He can have ice chips, no water and let him sleep when he needs to." And with that, the doctor's gone and it's just him and Jared and that damn machine beeping too loud.

*

Every time he opens his eyes there's Peter. And pain. He can swallow now but his head hurts and the big toe on his left foot itches but he can't reach it. He can't talk, smiles weakly at Peter every time he puts some ice in his mouth and falls back asleep almost straight away. He doesn't know how many times it happens, how long he's been here, he just knows that Peter's here.

* 

Carmen brings him clothes and books he won't read, kisses Jared's forehead and pushes his hair up into greasy messy spikes and kisses him again before she smiles at Peter, kisses his cheek and leaves them alone. Pindar doesn't come and Peter doesn't expect him to. Peter doesn't leave the room when Leonard and Jared's mom visit, just sits in the corner, listens to awkward small talk and isn't surprised in the least when each visit becomes shorter than the one before it. Stanton brings flowers and some herbal tincture stuff in a stone bottle that makes Peter eyes water when he takes a sniff. Damien brings grapes and Hannah leaves the blanket her mother crocheted when Hannah was five and had flu that laid her up in bed for two weeks.

*

Jared tries to stay awake when people visit, tries to tell them he's gonna be okay and that they shouldn't worry. Mostly though he drifts in and out, wakes up to find Peter, always Peter and smiles a little more every time.

*

Two weeks and four days in and they have a routine. Peter's got a cot next to Jared's bed, his clothes take up more than half of the closet, his toiletries the entire bathroom. He's taken over teeth brushing but not bathing and only because Jared looked at him like he was fucking nuts, told him to fuck off when Peter told the nurse he was going to do it. Peter wakes up when the nurse comes in to check Jared's vitals, when the doctor reviews his chart, when the night nurse pokes his head 'round the door to ask if there's anything either of them need. He's grown a beard and his hair's a fucking mess, but Jared's getting better by the day and no one has even thought to tell him to leave past the first couple of days. He gets case files sent from the office and when Jared's lucid enough to help, they spit-ball ideas back and forth 'til Jared falls asleep again mid-sentence.

It's not 'til the end of the third week that the subject of insurance come up. And it's not 'til Peter gets handed the forms does he realize just why no one's even batted an eyelid about him practically moving in.

_'Next Of Kin - Peter Bash'._

He signs the forms, in triplicate, and can't help but read over the next of kin part every time. He didn't know. He should've known, right? Jared should've at least mentioned it. Maybe he did and Peter just forgot about it, but Peter wouldn't forget about something like this. No, he didn't know and Jared didn't tell him and he's not sure how he feels about that. 

*

They take the metal contraption off Jared's thigh, start him up on physical therapy even though he's still in a cast and it hurts like a motherfucker. They start building up his other thigh to compensate, work on his shoulder and give Peter a list of modifications for when they get home. He sleeps more than he's awake, and he loses all track of time. 

*

"Here's one for you." Peter scratches at his beard and runs his hand back through his hair, it's getting long now, falling in his eyes more than it's not and he finds himself twisting his fingers through it to keep it back. "You get Scar Jo for a week, no holds barred, everything and anything goes."

"But?"

"Your dad gets to go first."

" _Dude_!" Jared pulls a face and shudders, scrubs at his face with his hand like that's going to wipe away what Peter has to admit is a pretty fucking nasty mental image. 

"You'll be compensated, and it's Scar Jo man, there's no way you can ever say no to Scar Jo."

"I don't have to watch my dad though, right?"

"Eugh - no man, I'm not that sick."

"And it's a whole week, right?"

"Uh-huh, and of course she'll find you completely irresistible and never leave."

"Sold."

"You're so easy."

"I know, right?"

*

It's another couple of days before the next of kin thing comes up again. Debbie brings by more forms for Peter to sign; employee benefits for partners of partners unable to work through accident or injury. And it's not referring to _law_ partners.

Peter signs, holds the forms for Jared to do the same and waits until Debbie's said her goodbyes before he pulls up a chair, straddles it back to front and crosses his arm over the back.

"Something you want to tell me?"

"About?" Jared's never been that good at looking innocent when there's something he's not really that innocent about, and this time's no different.

"Next of kin and employee benefits and the whole nursing team thinking we're not just law partners but _partner_ partners?"

"Oh, that." Jared bites at his lips and scratches at the cast on his leg, doesn't look at Peter for what feels like hours and Peter's about to poke him, get him to fess up when he looks up, smiles and shrugs.

"Remember that summer at the beach house? When I got nosy and found all that shit my dad kept locked in his desk and you stopped me burning it even though you didn't know what it was?"

The summer before they went to college, the summer Jared and Peter took a road trip and ran away to the beach house straight after, when Leonard all but threw Jared out of the house for not accepting the place at Harvard and taking UCLA instead, with Peter. 

"Uh-huh."

"What I never told you was Leonard had put some 'contingencies' in place. Even before we'd graduated, Peter, even before he found out I was going with you. That's what the papers were. The bastard wrote clauses into everything. I get nothing if I didn't go to the school he wanted, didn't chose corporate law, didn't take up a place at his firm, didn't marry someone he found acceptable and suitable, didn't give him at least one grandson, didn't become the son he knew I'd never live up to."

"Holy shit."

"I was set up to fail, Peter, every fucking step." And Jared's angry now, his voice too loud, his hands clamped and twisted in the waffle blanket and Peter doesn't think twice, just reaches for Jared just like he always does, closes his hand over Jared's wrist and rubs his thumb over the too-prominent bone right there. He doesn't stop Jared though, knows not to.

"Came home and did the same to him, took him off of everything, put you in his place. Hell, it's not like you're not family anyway, right?" Jared smiles a little then, but it's weak and it doesn't reach his eyes. "Was so angry man, wanted him gone."

But they were barely eighteen then, no way that was legal, Jared must have - 

"And you did it again when we were twenty-one, right? And you _still_ didn't tell me?" 

And at least Jared has the decency to look a little guilty this time. "I know Peter, but it's okay, right?"

And of course it's okay, it's Jared and Jared could ask Peter to walk over hot coals and Peter would ask for how far.

"Dude."

"And it's not like we're married, right? It's just legal stuff. And my share of the house and the Bronco." The Bronco Jared's had for less than two years, the one he got as a signing bonus and is quite possibly better off as an ashtray right now.

"Anything else? You know, while we're dividing you up so your dad doesn't get you? Do I get your kidneys? Eugh, no I don't want those, I know what you drink." Jared throws a washcloth at Peter's head, misses by miles and flops back onto his propped-up pillows, looking suddenly exhausted.

"No kidneys, it's just stuff, man, and you get to make all the important decisions should I become incompetent - in a _legal_ sense, dumbass."

And Peter shouldn't push it, knows Jared's about ready to pass out, but he needs to know. All the stuff over the last few weeks, from the phone call to the papers and now he really thinks about it, a bunch of stuff from before they even started at Infeld Daniels.

"People think we're together." It's not a question. And give Jared his dues, he doesn't deny it.

Peter really does feel like a dumbass, seeing as he never even noticed. All this time and he never even noticed. 

"Okay." And it really is, it's not like anything's gonna change with who they are and what they do, it's just that now Peter knows what Jared's known all along. And Jared smiles and nods, closes his eyes and lets out one long breath as he falls asleep.

Peter doesn't sleep for shit that night. The cot's too small, too hard, his pillows bunch up under his neck and the sheets tangle up 'round his legs. He gets up at three, walks the quiet corridors and hangs out at the nurse's station and flirts badly with a nurse old enough to be Colleen. He doesn't unpack that one even a little bit.

Instead he goes to sit in the cafeteria, drinks bad coffee and picks at a stale Danish, leaves more than he eats and loses the rest of the night wondering just how stupid he is for not noticing the whole 'couple' thing before just now.

They've always done everything together; college, law school, the bar (Jared waited to practice 'til Peter took his third and passed), bought the Cave and worked from there, decided on bringing in Pindar and Carmen, fought and won, fought and lost more often than not, worked their asses off, partied harder still and Peter never once thought it'd be any other way. And all that time, Peter was Jared's 'significant other', if only in name.

The more Peter thinks about it, the more he finds he's okay with it, that he doesn't mind. They've been in each other's pockets since they were ten, Jared knows him as much as he knows Jared and it's comfortable and _right_. And if that means everyone and their dog thinks they're together in more than name then he's not gonna do a thing to change that.

*

There's less pain every time he wakes up. He can move some now, stay awake long enough to hold a conversation, remembers them more often than not now, too. Even the ones he doesn't want to. 

*

Jared's awake when Peter gets back to their room, sitting up and eating pudding. And drinking chocolate milk.

"Please tell me you didn't drive into a tree just so you could get pudding and chocolate milk for breakfast?" 

Jared's smile is blinding, his teeth against the spoon and it's the first time since before the stupid disagreement Peter doesn't even remember, that he's seen it and he can't help but grin back, reach over to pull the spoon out of Jared's mouth and finish off the pudding.

"Assface."

"Douche-nozzle." Peter scraps the last of the pudding out of the cup and makes what he hopes is an obscene noise sucking it off the spoon.

"You gotta go back to work man. I know the Bash is nothing without Franklin, but you're stinking up my room."

"Fuck you, I smell like roses."

"Rotten ones, maybe." And there's than grin again. "Seriously, go back to work. I'm not getting better any quicker you being here and both of us not working means the Cabo fund's not getting any bigger."

"Stanton told me to take all the time I needed and he owes us one after the poison pill thing, right?"

"Right, but that doesn't mean you need to be here the whole time, I can wipe my own ass you know."

"Since you were five."

"So go back to work, your face is annoying me anyway."

*

Peter goes back to work the next morning, calls Jared every hour on the hour and every second in between he's miserable. Everyone is walking on eggshells around him, giving him that look - like he's gonna break if they so much as ask how Jared is, so instead they nod and walk by real fast and Peter's left alone in his office, the chair opposite him mocking in its emptiness.

He's lost track of how long he's been staring at the wall above Jared's desk when there's a knock at his door and Stanton's head 'round the corner of the doorframe.

"Ah, Peter, did I ever tell you about the time I was on the French Olympic Cross-Country Skiing Team?" Peter knows better than to do anything than just shake his head no and sit back in his chair.

"There was a freak blizzard, and we were cut off. Jean-Phillippe and I decided to go find help. Unfortunately there was an uncharted ravine and we both fell in. Jean-Phillippe came out unscathed. I on the other hand, was not so fortunate. A broken ankle when you're a hundred feet down with no way of rescue is not what anyone would call fun, I can tell you, but I managed to chew through my ski pants, and the skin around the fracture and Jean-Phillippe, bless him, popped that little bugger right back where it should be. And look, I don't even have a limp now." Stanton does a jig thing on the spot just to prove there's no limp and Peter feels more than a little like throwing up.

"Erm, thanks?"

"Jared will be fine, Peter. He's made of stronger stuff than many would give him credit for. He's Leonard Franklin's son after all and you don't grow up in the same house as that insufferable arse without toughening up." And with that Stanton claps Peter on the shoulder hard enough to hurt and turns on his heels to leave. "Just remember, anything either of you need, let me know and it'll be yours."

He's alone again. And the more he is, the more he realizes he doesn't like it one little bit.

*

He swings by the Cave to pick up clothes and the Die Hard Quadrilogy Jared got him three Christmases back. He quickly fills Carmen and Pindy in on the case they've got coming up (small fry stuff to get them 'back on the horse') and he's out the door again before the car engine's even had time to stop ticking. He drives to the hospital without remembering just _how_ and can feel the weight of a day on his own lifting as the elevator takes him up to the fifth floor and Jared's room. He's smiling as he turns the corner, ready to say hi to the Thursday night crew and get the gossip before he and Jared settle in for Bruce Willis blowing shit up. 

Except that's not how it happens and his smile is short lived.

"Would you mind explaining that again?" It's a voice Peter's come to hate when it's anywhere near Jared. Especially when Peter's not there to run interference. "It appears you're telling me that I have no right to see my son's physician, or any of his medical charts. Is that correct?" It's deep and not particularly kind and the exact tone that in the past had made Peter hide behind Jared's bedroom door. The fact that he ducked back 'round the corner as soon as he heard that voice and is currently hiding behind a door is not lost on him either.

"Sir, your son has very specific wishes regarding his care and his listed next of kin is entrusted with carrying out those wishes." The nurse, Paul, sounds almost too calm and not for the first time Peter wishes Leonard Franklin didn't make him want to punch him on the nose.

"And as his listed next of kin, that would then, in point of fact, be me."

It never occurred to Peter that Jared hadn't told his father. In fact Peter would've laid what they had left of the Cabo fund on Jared telling Leonard the second he'd done it, just to piss him off.

"No sir. Mr Franklin's listed next of kin is Peter Bash."

Now, Peter could stay behind this doorframe, could wait 'til Leonard is done with his bluster and threats and storms off to find some loophole somewhere but he knows he can't do that. He knows he needs to sack up and go face the man that never really liked him all that much before any of this came out.

He takes a deep breath, plasters on his very best 'you love me' smile and walks 'round the corner.

Leonard doesn't see him, but Paul does and he offers up an apologetic look before he looks back to Leonard.

"Sir, Mr Bash is here now, perhaps you can discuss any concerns you have about Mr Franklin's care with him?"

Peter's only ever seen that look on Leonard's face once in his life and he'd always hoped he'd never get to see it again. There's disappointment and anger and confusion, all twisted together, his mouth pinched ugly and tight, his cheeks flushed so red it looks like his head might explode.

"Peter." He gives Peter a curt nod and flicks his eyes over to the relatives room, doesn't wait for Peter to answer, just pushes past and waits just inside the doorway for Peter to join him.

Well, okay then.

"I'm going to assume you knew about this."

"Leonard -"  
"That you were in some part responsible for placing yourself in this position, that you have something to gain, that you have some measure of influence with my son and that you'll reconsider that position and recuse yourself. You have no right, Peter."

"It's Jared's decision. It'll always be Jared's decision. This isn't something he's taken lightly, or without thinking about it. He's not a _child_ , Leonard."

"He's obviously not fully in charge of his faculties; the accident, the head injury. This will not, cannot be upheld." The little vein in Leonard's temple is pulsing now and Peter can't take his eyes off it, can't hold back the memory from the first time he saw it, how Jared nearly peed himself laughing and got himself grounded for a month. Peter bites on his lip hard to stop from doing the same thing. Not that he's going to get grounded, but still.

"It's always been in place." He's not stupid enough to tell Leonard Franklin that he didn't know about it.

"And neither of you thought to mention it to me." He's not asking and Peter's not telling. It's not for him to get into. He'll be right there when Jared does, but he's not going to do it without Jared. It doesn't matter that Leonard's looking at him like a fish he wants to gut, he's not doing a thing without Jared.

That's the way it's been since they were ten and he can't imagine it any other way. And that's it, the crux of it, why he's always in Jared's shadow and why it was never gonna work with Janie, or anyone else. 'Cause they're not and never would be Jared. He turns around without so much as a second thought then, and goes back to the reason he's here in the first place.

"We'll talk about this with Jared later. You can leave now," over his shoulder before he lets the door close behind him.

Jared's face does what Jared's face always does when Peter walks into the room and that there seals it for Peter. This isn't about wills and powers of attorney and who's whose next of kin. It's about him and Jared. It's always been about him and Jared and if he was a dumbass before, it's nothing on right now.

"We need to talk about stuff and make decisions and fight and sign stuff and shit like that, but I want to try something first and then we can do all of that, or you can punch me and have security throw me out on my ass but just let me - I want to - "

And then he shuts up, clears the four steps from the door to the bed, grabs Jared's face in his hands and kisses him.

It's not the best kiss in the world; Jared tastes like metal and plastic and chocolate pudding and Peter's fingers get tangled up in the nose oxygen thing that's tucked over Jared's ears, but Jared makes a noise and grabs at Peter's arms and holds on tight and then they're smiling and Jared's kissing him back.

"I think I might love you." Peter half screws up his face, expecting Jared to laugh at him, but Jared just smacks the back of his head. Hard.

"Of course you love me, you idiot."

"No, I mean _love_ love, Jared."

"Oh."

"Yeah. I mean - that's okay, right, you're not gonna cut me out of your will now or anything stupid, right? It's not like anything's that different now I guess, it's just -"

And Jared kisses him again and it's better than the last one and Peter's already thinking on the next one and the ones after that.

"That puts both of us on the same page then."

 

end


End file.
